It’s been exactly two weeks ago that Southern Miss men’s headbasketball coach James Greene resigned, leaving his Golden Eagleswith one game remaining in the regular season and the C-USAtournament left to play.

As a graduate of Southern Miss, I felt some sympathy for Green.He suffers from high blood pressure and diabetes which is always adangerous combination. I know, I have it too.

Personally, I thought Green should have stayed with the team atleast through the C-USA tournament. He made public his issues abouta lack of funds and support from the Southern Miss administrationduring his last year. Still, I was sympathetic to his plight.

Saturday changed all that. I was sickened and angry by whatGreen did. It wasn’t the fact that Southern Miss fell to EastCarolina 63-50 in its final home game. What infuriated me was thatGreen was seated on the first row behind the Golden Eagle benchduring that game.

Excuse me coach, but didn’t you just QUIT your team the daybefore and now you’re sitting behind them.

Why? What purpose did that serve? If you were there to encouragethem, it didn’t work. They lost. I really wonder how the playersfelt, knowing the coach that quit on them the day before wassitting behind them to watch them play the very next day. How didthe players felt. If I had been a player, I would have been mad. Itwas a classless thing to do to them.

Despite the circumstances behind his departure, Green had somelegitimate grips about the mens basketball program.

Give Green credit. At age 43, he finished with a winning recordof 123-109. But over the last three seasons, his teams were 36-46overall and 15-32 in the C-USA. That’s nothing to brag about.

To his credit, Green did what he could with what he had. He didhave some legitimate complaints about money and the lack of supportat Southern Miss. The university needs to quickly improve theoutdated Reed Green Coliseum which has a seating capacity of 8,095.More funds need to be put into recruiting as well. That is theschool’s responsibility.

Students have to support the Golden Eagle basketball programs,the men as well as the women. Attendance has been down for the last10 years. This season, Green Coliseum has been less than half fullfor its home games, averaging just 3,300 (unofficial).

During former USM coach M.K. Turk’s last year (1995-96), theaverage was 4,567. The fault is not all Green’s but the studentbody’s as well.

More money will help but it’s not the entire solution to theproblem. It boils down the product on the court. It’s recruitingtalented players and getting them to play competitive ball.

The person responsible for the success or failure is the headcoach. That’s the bottom line. Hopefully a new coach will makethings better, provided the administration backs him with moremoney.

Several excellent coaches have been mentioned as possiblecandidates to replace Green. They include Mike Jones, Don Maestri,John Treloar, Larry Eustachy, Robert Kirby, Stan Jones and RichardWilliams.

Remember basketball fans, it will take them time to build agood, competitive team. A good program is not built overnight.

Southern Miss needs to bring its fans back. They should want tobe there and be part of the game. Understand, people get tired ofpaying to watch the home team lose consistently as Southern Missdid these last three years. During Green’s most successful years(1997-98) and (2000-01), his team’s were an impressive 22-11 and22-9 respectively but fan support was never what it should havebeen.

When the new coach is hired, he will need the funds andenthusiastic support from the university to build a winningprogram.